Lawrence D WheelerOdar Office, Administrative Law Judge
For the 2010 *fiscal year, Judge Lawrence D Wheeler has disposed 512 cases at the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) in LOS ANGELES WEST, CALIFORNIA. Out of those 512 dispostions, 184 were dismissed, 190 were approved and 138 were denied. This means that the percentage of depositions that Judge Lawrence D Wheeler has approved in LOS ANGELES WEST for the 2010 fiscal year is 15%. The information below for Judge Lawrence D Wheeler was last updated on 12/01/2022.
AVERAGE STATISTICS
| Office | *Fiscal Year | Total Depositions | Total Decisions | Total Denials | Total Awards | Cases Dismissed | Cases Approved | Cases Denied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2010 | 512 | 328 | 138 | 190 | 36% | 37% | 27% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2012 | 437 | 214 | 100 | 114 | 51% | 26% | 23% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2015 | 432 | 248 | 150 | 98 | 43% | 23% | 35% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2014 | 389 | 274 | 173 | 101 | 30% | 26% | 44% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2013 | 390 | 264 | 135 | 129 | 32% | 33% | 35% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2016 | 342 | 210 | 117 | 93 | 39% | 27% | 34% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2017 | 361 | 207 | 123 | 84 | 43% | 23% | 34% |
| LOS ANGELES WEST | 2018 | 75 | 64 | 41 | 23 | 15% | 31% | 55% |
AVERAGE TIME
| Dismissed | Approved | Denied | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence D Wheeler | No Stats for FY2018 | ||
| All ALJs in LOS ANGELES WEST | 22% | 44% | 34% |
| All ALJs in CALIFORNIA | 19% | 45% | 35% |
| All ALJs in the Nation | 18% | 45% | 38% |
13 Comments
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. This individual is one of the most insulting, rude, and unreasonable people I have had the misery of meeting. If you are unfortunate enough to appear before this “hanging” judge, consider your case to be lost. You could be missing all of your limbs and he would suggest that you could serve as second base for a baseball league somewhere in the country. You may have to move to the other side of the country (since people applying for SSDI are known to be flush with money), but if there is a stamp somewhere in the country that needs licking and your tongue is capable of producing moisture-you are not disabled. Plain as day, right? There is no gray area, no extraneous circumstances or conditions with this man. If you are even remotely capable of operating a phone, you are ideally suited to be a telemarketer-and thus, clearly NOT disabled. More surgery coming up? Irrelevant. You at one time told your doctor that you were feeling even a little better, so therefore you ARE better and can find a job doing something somewhere. I would love to return to work (and have tried but was told that my restrictions could not be accommodated). So regardless of what he thinks you are qualified to do, good luck finding a company willing to take you on when you are “damaged goods”. Once again, irrelevant. He is clearly trying to atone for all of the years when everyone was being approved by going in the complete opposite direction. My advice: First-do NOT get injured at work, you have no rights if that happens. Second-pray like hell that you do not end up in front of Lawrence Wheeler. Third-find a lawyer that knows what they are doing and is not simply there hoping to cash out with your case. I failed on all three counts.
This judge is a joke and should be removed from the ALJ panel. He does not know, or does not understand the law, or the evidence. He tells the claimants BEFORE the hearing that he is going to deny the claim no matter what. Petty officials like like give government a bad name. I am not even sure he went to law school or is even a lawyer. God only knows how he got on the ALJ panel.
He is doing a great disservice to the Social Security Administration and if putting the entire department in a very bad light.
As a witness I felt intimated, and badgered with not enough time to think a question through. The claimnet was told we need to speed this up I have other places to be today (this was a Friday late morning). Claimnet was not allowed to ask a question.If you do not understand the judges question then you shoul be able to ask a question so you can answer it properly. He said if I interupt the proceding again he would throw me out and it would be done. If I am not mistaken it is us the working people that pay him and he should have a obligation to listen to us and to read case files from begining to end instead of just zeroing in on one area and not look at the whole person and all their problems.
In this bleak, sad world, one prays for a sprinkling of moments that might uplift one’s soul and fill one’s heart with the hope of joy. For me, one of those moments is always when I discover that my hearing will be heard by the Honorable Judge Lawrence D. Wheeler, one of the kindest, wittiest, smartest and, dare I say, handsomest men this humble attorney has ever had the privilege of encountering.
If you case happens to be assigned to Judge Wheeler, consider yourself one of the unluckiest people to ever file. This guy will not grant cases as apparent by his 26% approval rate. He basically has this scheme of strong arming attorneys into withdrawing their cases by basically stating no matter what he is going to deny the case.
Don’t even bother arguing, it useless, even if you do not withdraw and go forward, he will just bring in the client and make up some outrageous claim, during testimony, that the claimant is not credible, giving him further reason to deny, without considering the claimant’s actual case.
A handsome Devil.
Yes ALJ Wheeler is very bias. He tells you before the hearing that he has no intention of paying the claim, essentially indicating no matter what happens during the hearing he could care less. He fits in real good with ALJ Reason another bias ALJ.
Judge asked me and my colleagues to withdraw on just about every hearing we were scheduled. He would call us in early and tell us he was going to deny the claim….but it’s up to us if we want to proceed….not a fair judge at all!!
I agree with the previous comments about this ALJ. He actually brags about having cases dismissed and will tell the attorney/rep that he has no intention of paying the claim. He has already made his mind up about denying a claim prior to testimony even being taken.
I had a hearing before Judge Wheeler, he was very nasty and rude. Showed no compassion and eventually dismissed my case. I wonder why the SSA isn’t concerned about his high rate of dismissals and low approvals, his numbers are way out of line with the rest of W.LA office, state of CA and the nation as a whole. SSA seemed concerned recently about a ALJ who had a very high rate of approvals and began to investigate him. Why are’t they investigating this judge who is just the opposite in his decisions?